


Your Karma will Always Pay

by enby0angel



Series: Enby's Iruka Winter Bingo [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: /throws this at the screen, Canonical Minor Character Death, Discord: Umino Hours, Family Feels, GODS ABOVE I'M SO TIRED, Gen, Knitting, Minific, Umino Hours Winter Bingo, Umino Iruka Adops Uzumaki Naruto, just take it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28357806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enby0angel/pseuds/enby0angel
Summary: For some reason, everyone seemed to assume that Iruka got his knack for knitting from his mother.
Relationships: Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Enby's Iruka Winter Bingo [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034502
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36
Collections: The Umino Hours Winter Bingo 2020





	Your Karma will Always Pay

**Author's Note:**

> Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee another minific! Yeehaw I am so fucking tired y'all, holiday season has me BUGGERED. Pls let me sleep for a month. wahhh
> 
> This was written for the Umino Hours Discord's Winter Bingo Event! This was Square K1 - Knitting. 
> 
> I have nothing much more to say. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> (Title from the poem "Knitting Yarn" by Akhil Bhadwal. You can find it here: https://hellopoetry.com/poem/1380835/knitting-yarn/.)

For some reason, everyone seemed to assume that Iruka got his knack for knitting from his mother. Quite the opposite, in fact – it was his father who used wool and needles to relax after a rough day or a nasty mission. His mother was more prone to heading out to the training grounds and punching a tree until her knuckles bled.

Iruka always took after his father a bit more than he did his mother.

After their death, Iruka could barely look at a knitting needle without giving him the urge to hurl. The thought of knitting without his father by his side, leaning over to correct any errors he made, made him want to curl up in a ball and cry until he ran out of tears. He did exactly that on more than one occasion.

Eventually, however, he grew out of his clothes and his orphan stipend wasn’t enough to cover how quickly he was going through his wardrobe. Biting back bile, he picked up his father’s old needles and began to knit.

After the first few pieces he finished, he couldn’t help but cry. Mistakes he didn’t know how to fix because his father wasn’t there to tell him, things he did right that his father couldn’t congratulate him and ruffle his hair for. His mother couldn’t laugh as she walked through the house, not understanding what they found so relaxing about it but supporting them anyway.

When he became a genin, he lost his stipend and was living only off his D-Rank payments. He could still afford wool and yarn, thank the gods, so he could make himself more clothes. His training accelerated and his growth spurts meant that clothes barely lasted six months these days, but he was able to keep up in his spare time. Saving whatever spare ryo he could, he was able to afford some proper gear for a change.

The payments he got from C and B-Rank missions when he made chunin was a blessing. He could buy good quality clothes and gear, and he eventually stopped growing so his clothes needed replacing less often. Though his knitting fell to the side as more of a hobby, he never let it go completely. He didn’t want to cry every time he picked up the needles anymore – instead he smiled, the memory of his father’s laughter filling him with warmth instead of cold.

He began knitting solely at night, after he had finished grading his students homework and preparing lesson plans for the night. He made things for children that were poor and alone like he had been, that were living within the cold and lonely walls of the orphanage like he had been. He made a trip there at least twice a month, handing them out to kids who needed them. Never again would a child have nothing to their name, not on his watch.

He especially loved making things for little Naruto, who never asked for anything. The boy’s eyes always lit up when Iruka visited, and his smiles looked genuine and bright when Iruka made things for him.

Iruka had always felt a particular kinship with Naruto – one that eventually led to him moving into an apartment with an extra bedroom, punching an asshole orphanage worker in the face and taking Naruto home with him. He got a dressing-down from the Hokage, but the wink he got from Shikaku Nara on the way out let him know it was worth it.

Naruto never had the fine motor skills, finesse, or even the patience for something like knitting. Iruka attempted to teach him when Naruto expressed interest, but that didn’t last long at all. Iruka didn’t mind. He enjoyed the peaceful evenings when he would curl up in a corner of the couch while Naruto practised some harmless (Iruka made _doubly_ sure they were harmless) seals at the kitchen table.

For someone who used to be a notorious prankster, Iruka sure did enjoy the quiet life.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!! <3


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